Aim for young (ideally 19 or 20 years old) players with A+ potential, know that if you go lower than that you might be required to spend skill points to increase their potential to allow them to fully realise their potential. If you are on track for a high pick make sure you scout the player(s) you desperately want a few times. Better scouts give you a more accurate potential reading, as does scouting them more. Rookies that are generated come with a potential rating that is revealed by scouting them twice and then you get back a rough guide (C-, B or ideally A+!). This means that the potential of a player never changes (except through end of season training camps), players already in the game have a fixed potential (you can see the potential of any player, on any team by using “Edit Player”). This became more noticeable the more years you played into an association mode game). This had the effect of eventually making all teams 90+ rated, with very little difference between the best and worst squads (again if you played through for long enough. Some draft sets were created specifically to address this problem for NBA2K13). The longer you played association mode, the more unrealistic the game became (also not helped by the high potential on many rookies. more than a few seasons) would encounter tons of superstar players spread across all teams (and even lots of big superstar names available after free-agency if you stuck with the game long enough!). Whether this was intended or a bug is unknown, but this did cause a widely reported problem in NBA2K13 that only players who played deep into Association Mode (I.E. As you can clearly see, as Davis’ stats climbed his potential was rising too. When taking the screenshots above I whizzed through the seasons and didn’t use the training camp to improve his potential.
You can clearly see all of his stats rising year on year, including his potential going from 93 in the first shot, to 95 in the second and jumping to 96 in the third year (in NBA2K13 this would have continued to grow as his other stats grew and by his fifth or sixth season he would be a 99 overall rated player!). Luckily!) and quickly sim’d through 3 seasons as the Hornjazzicans (Pelicans, AKA Hornets) so I could take the following screenshots of Davis. I went back to NBA2K13 (which I hadn’t uninstalled. I’m going to stick with Anthony Davis as he is a perfect example (and one I’ve used already). In previous NBA 2K titles potential wasn’t a fixed figure, it shifted as a player improved. If you read the “ What team should I be? (part 1)” post, you’ll know I talked a lot about potential, without going into too much detail at the time (I didn’t fully understand the changes which had occurred between releases at the time, for example I stated Anthony Davis was sure to hit 99 I’ve since realised that isn’t true! At least not without some training!). The change in potential has certainly changed how you should view the value of certain stats in Association Mode for young players it is now THE most important stat!
Potential! I think this part of the game deserves a full post on this blog because it is perhaps one of the biggest changes moving from NBA2K13 into NBA2K14 (for the better, although you may not agree!).